The first municipalities were the 11 cities of Nanjing, Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao, Chongqing, Xi'an, Guangzhou, Hankou, Shenyang, and Harbin. They were established in 1927 soon after the cities (in the modern official sense) were created during the 1920s. Nominally Dalian was a municipality as well, although it was under Japanese Occupation. These cities were first called special municipalities/cities (特別市), but were later renamed Yuan-controlled municipalities (院轄市), then direct-controlled municipalities (直轄市) by the Central Government. A few decades after the Kuomintang moved to Taiwan, they upgraded Taipei and Kaohsiung to municipalities.
After the Communist takeover of mainland China in 1949, Anshan, Benxi, and Fushun were made municipalities as well; while Qingdao, Shengyang, and Harbin were reduced to provincial municipalities. Hankou was merged to Wuhan. There remained 12 municipalities in mainland China, until Dalian was elevated in 1950. In June 1952, Harbin was restored to municipality-status, along with Changchun. Except Beijing and Tianjin, which were under central control, all other municipalities were governed by the greater administrative areas.
In June 1954, 11 of the 14 municipalities were reduced to provincial municipalities; many of them became capitals of the provinces they were in. Only Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin were left, until Chongqing was restored in 1997. Tianjin was also temporarily reverted to the province-controlled status around the 1960s.
The first municipalities were created on Taiwan when Taipei was made a Yuan-controlled municipality in 1967. The same was done for Kaohsiung in 1979. They are the only two municipalities currently under the ROC administration. Since 1994, Yuan-controlled municipalities have been officially called direct-control municipalities to emphasize their autonomy. Besides significant political, economic, and cultural development, the ROC law dictates that a municipality must have population of over 12,150,000.
